OBE's while wide awake with mind split

[catmeow]

Hi catmeow! Thanks a lot for the links! They are all very interesting!
I can say that i can somewhat relate my experience with your link about Lourens M Sobe, the one in which he split into two "selves"!
It has happened twice, both at dawn! Both these times, after having my OBE, my astral self had communicated with my other self (which looked more like my real self), even when i was aware that my physical body was fast asleep on the bed!  

Though there is no explanation for these incidents, i had found them quite fascinating! The human mind definitely has much more to it than anything else on earth!!!    

Hi piyal, I'm glad you enjoyed the links. The Laurens M experience, and yours, sound very much like you were communicating with your Higher Self (what you called Entity 2),  Your Higher Self would be the amalgamation of all your Lower Selves (Entity 1s) which have existed, and for that reason, it makes sense that your Entity 1 felt more like the "real you", because that is all you as Entity 1 have ever known. Your experience kinda makes sense to me, if you look at it this way. It's quite rare to contact your Higher Self which is what I suspect happened. You are quite lucky!

EDIT: I got so wrapped up in the Laurens M experience that I confused it with yours! Hope that wasn't too confusing. In your case, do you think you contacted your Higher Self, or did you communicate with your pbysical body?!

[piyal_14]

Hi again Catmeow!

The Laurens M experience, and yours, sound very much like you were communicating with your Higher Self (what you called Entity 2),  Your Higher Self would be the amalgamation of all your Lower Selves (Entity 1s) which have existed, and for that reason, it makes sense that your Entity 1 felt more like the "real you", because that is all you as Entity 1 have ever known. Your experience kinda makes sense to me, if you look at it this way. It's quite rare to contact your Higher Self which is what I suspect happened. You are quite lucky!

I actually do not understand properly what the role of the Higher Self is? First of all, it looked more like the real me and not like my astral self! And one thing that i have noticed very much is that i always meet this Higher Self while i'm OOB and confused in some way or the other.
For instance, the first time that i met my HS when i was trying to figure out whether i should exit a particular door or not (it was the very first OBE that i'd had). And there i met my HS and there seemed to be a brief moment of eye contact between the two of us after which i was pulled back in my real body.
The second time was when i was trying to figure out how to fly upwards and through the ceiling. Even there i met my HS and again there was some sort of exchange (an assurance that i was safe) through eye contact after which i was back in my body again!
This makes me think that the higher self might be some sort of an intermediate bond that joins the physical and the astral!? 

[catmeow]

Hi again piyal, well now it's getting hard to explain what you are experiencing! The entity you keep meeting may be your Higher Self, (trying to give you advice, reassurance etc) or it could be your subconscious (trying to do the same thing). It's quite common in the astral to have experiences which are difficult to understand. May I suggest that the next time you meet this "other you", that you just ask what it is?  The answer could be very interesting!

In general, the Higher Self is that aspect of ourselves which has knowledge of our true nature, remembers all of our past lives, probably plans our lives before we incarnate, absorbs the lessons our physical lives teach us and so on. I haven't heard of it ever being described as an intermediate bond between the physical and astral, but in as much as it is very interested in your personal well being, it might intervene to give you hints and pointers, as you progress in your astral adventures.

I don't know if any of this helps? But do try asking the "other you" who or what it is next time!

[catmeow]

By focus I suppose I mean where a person "focuses" their "awareness", in this case where along the entire spectrum of consciousness your awareness covers. Awareness would be what you as a person are aware of in the current moment. Right now my awareness is in front of my PC, my senses, my thoughts, etc. Then there are other things going on, but are outside of my awareness... subconscious stuff, like breathing. But of course I can expand my awareness to take some of those things in. Concentration is simply a "concentration of awareness" - shrinking awareness down to cover fewer things.

And by stretching awareness, I mean you expand your awareness into other states of consciousness along the spectrum. Awareness doesn't take form or size, just intent. 2 or more areas of consciousness in 1 single awareness (madness).

I see it's different than your explanation above - in mine, a vacuum has no awareness. The censors just send data to a program to execute certain code, none of which is aware. I understand what you're saying though. I suppose in daily life, most people would say "this is what I'm conscious of" not "what I'm aware of". I think I use the terms as I do in regards to AP because when I look at the spectrum of consciousness as a whole, it's not something we're "conscious" of, most parts of consciousness we remain "unconscious" of. If we didn't exist, it still would.

I don't have a clue if I'm right or wrong, that's just how I've always looked at awareness/consciousness in regards to AP.
(I hope I'm not confusing anyone. If you're confused, please ignore this.)

Thanks Stookie for that. After some googling, I see that the current biological definitions of "aware", "conscious" and "cognizant" seem to be almost equivalent (and at first reading seem to be more like your definition than mine). However, looking a little deeper, there is a difference along the lines I am trying to explain (although I could be wrong).

To me, to be "conscious of" implies some degree of subjective conscious experience (i.e. "qualia"), whereas to be "aware of" does not. This is why I say that a vacuum cleaner bot is "aware" of its surroundings but not "conscious" of them (does not understand them).

The Wikipedia definition of "awareness" is:

Wikipedia: Awareness is the state or ability to perceive, to feel, or to be conscious of events, objects, or sensory patterns. In this level of consciousness, sense data can be confirmed by an observer without necessarily implying understanding. More broadly, it is the state or quality of being aware of something. In biological psychology, awareness is defined as a human's or an animal's perception and cognitive reaction to a condition or event.

This definition implies a level of "consciousness" but specifically qualifies this level of consciousness as being "without understanding":

Wikipedia: In this level of consciousness, sense data can be confirmed by an observer without necessarily implying understanding.

So the Wikipedia definition emphasises that awareness does not require any "understanding". This is the crux of what I am saying: "awareness" is classified as a very low level of consciousness, one which "has knowledge", but without subjective conscious experience, without qualia, without thought and without understanding. Personally I don't think it even qualifies as a level of consciousness, but apparently it does.

If you have read this far thanks for reading!

Sorry if I confused anybody. Thanks for the clarification Stookie, I now understand what you were saying in your earlier post.

[piyal_14]

I don't know if any of this helps? But do try asking the "other you" who or what it is next time!

Thanks a lot catmeow. Next time i will try to do so...